American Mail Order Catalogs with Boys Clothings: 1955


Figure 1.--Davy Crockett merchandize and clothing was all the rage in America during 1955. Of course no outfit was complete without a coon-skin cap.

American mail order catalogs offer a very useful time line on changing fashion trends. American mail order catalogs in 1955 featured Plaid shirts for school. Boys were wearing mostly slacks and jeans. Some boys wore short pants, but it was increasingly less commonn, except for younger boys. Jeans came long so the cuffs could be turned up. In the middle of the decade coon skin caps appeared thanks to Walt Disney and Davt Crocket.

Headwear

Davy Crockett coon-skin caps were all the rage in 1955.

Wards' Davy Crocket accessories

Wards also offered quite a range of Davy Crockett accessories, the most memorable were coon skin caps, which appaer to have been made out of possum.

Toddler Clothes


Shirts

Flannel shirts were popular for elementary school. Western style shorts seen to have been all the rage, perhaps influenced by television programing. Both collared shirts were worn as well as long and short-sleeved "T"-shirts. Quite a range of maretials including cotton broadcloth, cotton suede, corduroy, gaberdine, and gingham.

Wards' non-collared shirts

Wards offered long and short-sleeved "T"-shirts. There was also a turtle-neck style and a rugby-style shirt. A cardigan-style sweater was also included on this page.

Wards' collared shirts

Wards offered quite a variety of long sleeved collared shirts. The dress shirt had stays in the collar, but button-downs had not yet appeared. The colors were white and blue as expected, but ot was also available in pink. There were several plaid shirts. One in cotton-suede and another in ginham. A new Italian look collar was offered. One short had western styling for younger boys. There was also a pinwale cprduroy shirt in blue, gold, green, maroon, pink, and red.

Coats

Coats hung down further than jackets, the length depending on the style of coat. Parkas were also available.

Wards' surcoats

Wards had a page for "surcoats". I never heard of such a coat in 1955. The dictionary defines a surcoat as an outer cloak often used for the tunuic worn over armor in the Middle Ages! From the looks of the coats they appear to be longer than jackets and shorter than overcoats. Wards also offered bomber jackets and parkas.

Jackets

Short jackets were popular for school. Elementary boys might have fake fur on the collar, but this was less popular with high school boys. Letter jackets were especilly popular for high school.

Wards' jackets

Nylon and poplin were common. Some were reversible. Vinyl-plastic was made to look like a leather jacket. Letter jackets were called Melton jackets for some reason. They came in various school color.

Pants

Jeans became very popular durung the 1950s. Denim jeans were the standard. Jeans were worn by most elementary school boys, although many high schools did not permit them. They were worn cowboy style with big cuffs, so that had to be bought long. This allowed boys to grow into them. High school boys mostly wore slacks to school. Chinos became popular. There were also corduroy pants. Most boys wore long pants. Some boys wore short pants when dressung up, but this had become less popular. Boys might wear shorts during the summer, but except for younger boys, most wore long pants even during the sunmmer.

Playwear

Some outfits for younger boys and girls are described as playwear. One company, Wards, does not include denim jeans in the playwear section.

Wards' playwear

This page includes items for boys and girls, but separate items. The designation as play wear appears to come from the fact that they are largely made for pre-school children with time to play. There are shirts, including "T"-shirts, for the boys and blouses for the girls. Several styles of long pants are offered for boys and girls, including flannel-lined corduroys. One interesting item is suspender "cargo" pants. The cargo feature looks very modern, but this feature does not appdear to have been very popular at the time for long pants--althoug it proved popular on short pants which were styled "camp shorts".

Specialized Promotions

The at the time fledgling American TV network scored a coup when they signed up Disney for a weekly prime-time TV show. The "Mickey Mouse Club" was soon to follow for after-school afternoon television. Disney's first block-buster success was Davy Crocket and Davy Crocker merchandize and clothes, including coon-skin caps, soon flooded the stores.

Wards' Davy Crocket clothes

Wards offered quite a range of Davy Crockett shirts and pants. The text descricing these items was on the next page. Some of the items were for girls as well. The basic idea appears to have been to stick a fringe on both the shirts and pants. They were mase in sizes up to 12 or even 14 years.

Wards' Davy Crocket accessories

Wards also offered quite a range of Davy Crockett accessories. The popularity coon-skin caps were on offer her and if I am reading the add right were made out of possum. Heavens knows what the animal rights people would think about this.

Hosiery

Moys most wore ankle socks. White socks were not yet as as common as they were to become for boys. Kneesocks had not yet totally disappeared, but they were by 1955 not commonly worn by boys.

Wards' socks

Boys most wore ankle socks. There were many solid color socks, including charcol gray, camel tan, brown, dark green, red, navy, light blue, and maize. The popular argle style is shown here. There are also stripes as well as other patterns. Wards also offers white socks which the call "sport" socks. There were even Davy Crocket socks so a boy could really dress up like Davy from his head down to his toes.

Underwear

Bobs wore both "T"-shirts and altheletic (tank top) underwear. Most boys wore briefs--except in cold weather. Boxers were only worn by old guys.

Wards' underwear

I don't remember them at the time. There were also mid-length shorts underwear and drawers for cold weather--but no boxers. Interestingly of the underpants on pages 44-45, none are boxers. Interestingly there were print briefs available.

Wards' underwear

More underwear is offered here, both T"-shirts and altheletic (tank top) undershirts, mid-length shorts, and briefs.

Pajamas

Ski pajamas for boys were popular for boys as well as a variety of other styles.

Wards' pajamas

Wards offered two types of ski-style pajamas. There was also a regular button-style and a middy pullover style.

Wards' pajamas

Wards offered more pajamas here, including ski-pajamas for boys and girls and toddler sleepers.

Observations

The fashions seen here in the Wards catalog are discussed in more details by HBC, in fact two observers who were boys at the time. They were different ages and lived on different ends of the country. Some of these fashions are instantly recognizeable. Others come as a bit of a surprise to the two observers.






HBC






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Created: December 11, 2001
Last updated: 5:39 AM 11/6/2005